


Of school, detention and deaths

by Sarilolla



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Alternate Universe - School, Background characters like teachers are most likely Hiveswap (Friendsim) characters, Characters are already dead, Humanstuck, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:33:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22481869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarilolla/pseuds/Sarilolla
Summary: Karkat Vantas has just joined a new school following his father's death. Now, Karkat managed to already get in detention and people are surrounding him with questions. Fleeing the room, Karkat noticed that someone else is here. Or are they?
Kudos: 5





	1. First day of school

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! This is my very first "proper" fanfiction, and I hope it can bring you some enjoyment. This is an alternate universe, so some characters might be a bit different from canon. 
> 
> My first language isn't english but I still hope you will enjoy this!!
> 
> Happy reading :))

“GREAT, ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC,” he muttered to himself. First day of a new school, and he was already sent to detention. He wasn’t even completely done with the orientation, and he had already messed things up.

“GREAT FUCKING JOB KARKAT, HOW DID YOU EVEN MANAGE THIS?”

Thinking to himself, he found out he was a complete moron. An absolute idiot. How did he even manage this? He groaned, just waiting for when he got home. His big bro was going to lecture him for hours for this. Sure, he loved Kankri (not that he would ever say that to him), but the lectures was a bit too much. Especially since their father died. His bro was already an adult, so Karkat moved in with him. But now he was two fuckin hours away from his former home. Not that he had any good friends there or anything, it was just such a stress switching schools. And he managed to get himself into detention. ON THE FIRST FUCKING DAY!

// Flashback //

“What’s your name?”

“KARKAT VANTAS, MISS”

“Well, I’m sorry mister Vantas, but I’m afraid I have to give you detention for this.”

“WHAT, WHY?”

“1. You managed to walk right into the first graders. 2. You did not apologize. 3. You talked back to me right now.”

Karkat wanted to say something that would probably lend him in even deeper trouble, but he kept his mouth shut. The teachers in this school was stricter than the ones in his old one.

// Four hours later //

15 minutes into detention, and Karkat was already bored. The teacher had come in, said “just don’t leave the classroommmm, and you should be fine” then she took a big sip from her mug, and started doing something on her computer.

Looking around, Karkat could count 11 other teenageres in the classroom. Some of them were chatting in two and two, or just silently sat there. A girl with very sharp teeth had seated herself beside Karkat. He was almost a 100% sure that the teeth was glue on vampire teeth, but since he didn’t want any conversation, he didn’t mention it.

A boy with very clown-ish clothes was casually chatting with a boy in a wheelchair. Two girls with what looked like food in their clothes and hair, snickered at the phone of the one with red-rimmed sunglasses. A very short girl, and a very tall, and buff, boy sat on a table together, the girl drawing in her notebook, and the boy silently watching her and her drawing. In front of him, a girl and boy sat. The boy was at his phone, while the girl showed a necklace made of what appeared to be bone to the girl who sat across her. The girl who was admiring the necklace Karkat could tell was sent to detention because of dress code. She was wearing multiple necklaces and colorful clothes. (Karkat had read most of the rules before he came, and there was pretty strict rules for accessories to the school uniform. She had way to many.) The boy next to her again sat grumbling and writing in his notebook.

After another 15 minutes the lights went out.

“just stay here, i'll go out and check. if you mmmmove you get a call hommmme”

The talk went up a few volumes when the teacher left. Karkat dropped his head on the table. At least no one talked to him.

“What Is Your Name?”

Oh, he had definitely spoken too soon. Slowly looking up, he said his name.

“KARKAT”

“My Name Is Kanaya, It Is A Pleasure Meeting You.”

Karkat just groaned and laid his head back on the desk. He really didn’t want to socialize with anyone right now. Kanaya seemed to take the hint, and turned around to speak with the food-covered girls.

“Vriska, Terezi, How Did You Two Manage To Get Detention?”

“W3 ST4RT3D 4 FOOD W4R 1N LUNCH TOD4Y.”

The girl with sunglasses, who Karkat suspected was Terezi, grinned. The other girl, who most likely was named Vriska, grinned too. Just from their relaxed attitude and Kanaya's question, Karkat suspected this wasn’t the first time they were in detention.

“:33 < so that was you?”

The girl with the sketchbook looked up. She had catlike features, and he had a feeling she would pounce at you like one if she had the chance.

“D --> Nepeta, we shouldn't join others conversation like that”

The boy next to Nepeta speaks up. He looks anxious, and it also looks like he’s sweating?

“:33 < yes, i kmeow equius. but this is an interesting topic!"

“what really happened, me and aradiia wa2 out iin the garden,”

The boy with the phone turned around, and Karkat noticed his glasses. They looked like 3D glasses, but rounder. They looked fucking idiotic. The girl beside perked up at the sound of what Karkat guessed was her name. And with her, the girl with the accessories. Almost everyone was in on the chat now. The only ones left was the boy in the wheelchair, the boy with the clown clothes, and the boy beside accessory girl. (Though it looked like all of them were listening. Karkat included.)

“So 8asically we just started a food war, no 8ig deal.”

The girl beside Terezi, Karkat guessed Vriska, spoke up. She then turned around.

“What did you get her for Tavros, I 8et it was something stupid.”

Wheelchair boy looked nervous, like he didn’t like Vriska talking to him.

“i WAS TOO LATE FOR CLASS, tHE ELEVATORS DIDN'T WORK, i HAD MISTER XIGISI, aND HE IS VERY STRICT,”

“What About You Gamzee?”

Kanaya looked over at the clown.

“MoThErFuCkIn DrEsScOdE.”

“Really? I also got )(ere for t)(at.”

“Well, That Is A Shame. You Look Lovely With Those Earrings, Feferi.”

Feferi smiled. And with that the chat continued for a bit. Around 5 minutes later, the boy beside Aradia asked a question.

“hey, eriidan. how diid you get detentiion?”

The boy beside Feferi looked slowly up from his notebook.

“late homewwork, wwhat about you?”

“ii thiink aradiia ii2 better at an2weriing that.”

Aradia suddenly looked very excited. She turned around looking at everyone, making sure she had the attention of the ones surrounding her.

“alright, so i’ve heard about something that happened at our school around 7 years ago. so apparently someone has died here at school. it is said that they died close to the garden, so me and sollux decided to go there and dig around.”

“that wa2 your iidea.”

“yes, but still.”

Suddenly everyone had their eyes and ears at the conversation in the front of the room. Karkat realized that this school might be more exciting than his old one. (He also noticed that he now knew the name of everyone in the room, but he was also pretty sure only Kanaya knew his.) Aradia shushed everyone and then she started explaining that 7 years ago, a few people had died here at school. How and why she didn’t know, that was why she wanted to see if she could find any remains.

“it was pretty foolish idea, but now i at least know a bit more.”

Suddenly Vriska interrupted her.

“Hey, new8ie, you've 8een awfully quiet. Don't have anything to say?”

All eyes was now on Karkat. Fuck. This is not how he wanted this to go. Couldn’t they just keep talking about skeletons and death?

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY?”

“:33 < you could tell us your name?”

“IT'S KARKAT.”

“what do you thiink of our 2chool 2o far?”

“FUCKING HORRIBLE!”

More and more questions piled up, and Karkat started to freak out. What the fuck was he supposed to do?

“what do you think of the deaths in this school?”

When Aradia asked that question, Karkat fled the room. He really didn’t care what would happen. The teacher could call home, but he already knew that he would get a lecture from Kankri when he got home. And questions about death was still a sore topic to Karkat. He was pretty sure Aradia hadn’t meant anything wrong with that… Still, when death was the reason he left his old home, he didn’t want to answer any questions about it here. He just knew they were talking about him back in the classroom, but walking through this dark corridor he couldn’t care less.

Fuck, it was really dark here. Not looking where he was walking, he stepped right out in thin air. FUCK! He was going to trip down the stairs. Closing his eyes and waiting for his fall, someone grabbed his sweater and yanked him back up.

“i warned you about the stairs bro”

“THANKS, I-”

Karkat turned around to see his rescuer, but no one was there. Looking all over the halfway he just walked through, he noticed he was the only one there.

“don’t mess with him like that”

Another voice, this time behind him. Spinning around as fast as humanly possible Karkat realized no one was there either.

“Now you’re messing with him.”

A girls voice to his left spoke.

“i never miss a good pranking chance :B”

The second voice again.

Another voice came from the dark.

“you should go back to the classroom, your teacher is on her way :)”

Karkat looked at his watch and realized that must be true. He didn’t want to realize whatever had happened right now, so he just started sprinting for the classroom. When Karkat rounded the corner, he heard someone talking on the phone. It was most likely the teacher. Sprinting into the classroom, and almost falling off his chair when he tried to sit down, Karkat began to realize the absurdity of what that just had happened. He had probably just caught himself, and imagined the voices. Or they were real. That didn’t explain why Karkat couldn’t see them.

A minute later the teacher came into the room. She looked over the class and saw everyone was there. She dismissed them.

Before Karkat could do anything, Aradia came to his desk. She spoke slowly.

“i'm sorry if my question hurt you…”

“IT'S FINE. THERE'S JUST A LOT GOING ON FOR ME RIGHT NOW.”

“alright, just tell us if you want to ask us anything.”

“ACTUALLY, I HAVE A QUESTION.”

People around was listening in on the conversation, but Karkat couldn’t care less. Aradia knew something about the deaths in this school, and if the voices was what Karkat suspected, he wanted to know all he could.

“CAN I KNOW EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT THOSE DEATHS YOU MENTIONED EARLIER?”


	2. New friends?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat has to figure out whatever is in that school, and how it affects him. Will his new friends be of help?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New school, new life, new friends. How will Karkat manage?
> 
> Just wanna say thanks to my friends who support me with this. Also there is something small, but quite weird in this chapter that I asked about. Hope no one find it too weird...
> 
> Happy reading :))

Going home that day Karkat had gained 4 things, an uneasy feeling for whatever was in that school, a growing annoyance for the thought of Kankri's lecture, some new friends (?), and 11 new phone numbers. 

The uneasy feeling because who or what that had saved him could just be a trick of his mind, and he would most likely feel even more stupid than he did right now. He knew Kankri would start talking as soon as he got home, since he was new in school and got detention, his guardian had most likely been called. He might not talk that much about detention if he knew Karkat got some friends, but then he remembered he meet all those “friends” in detention. He could already imagine what Kankri would say. The numbers he got because Aradia wanted help to find stuff, and said they could search stuff up. Other people wanted to join, so Feferi and Kanaya came with the idea of making a group chat. Sollux set it up, and everyone just joined. Now he had the total of 12 numbers in his phone. Which is kinda depressing.

Karkat got home, dodged Kankri and ran for his room. He knew he couldn’t avoid his brother the rest of the night, but right now Karkat had both homework and research to do. Hurrying through his homework, Karkat couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened. After all, he wasn’t a superstitious person. He didn’t actually want to put a name on those beings, because that could leave the chance open for his father returning as one. Karkat wasn’t completely sure why he wanted to find out about this. Was it the thing that people had died in school? That something or someone had saved him from falling down the stairs? That the people he had seen today probably thought he was crazy, and he didn’t want to seem like a liar? 

An hour later Kankri came knocking at his door saying dinner was ready. Weirdly enough had his big brother not come to his room asking for anything. Not even asked how his day had been. Something must have been up since he was so quiet. Because quiet was surely not a Kankri thing to be.

Slowly walking down the stairs grumbling about not getting time for research Karkat walked into the kitchen. Sure, it was small, and they had pretty loud neighbours, but at least they both had their own room, and Karkat also sometimes used the small guest bathroom that just had a toilet and sink when he had to rush somewhere. It was pretty nice in their tiny home, well it could be nicer when Karkat actually thought of it as “home”. For now it was just a house he shared with his brother. And from what he saw on the small table they had pasta for dinner.

It had always been a thing with their family. Being completely quiet while eating. That way no arguing would happen, and everyone could just enjoy the company of each other. Nothing had been more precious to them than that. But when they were done, everyone would start talking. It was often hard getting a word in, since both his father and Kankri was pretty talkative persons. They could talk for hours. So Karkat had gotten used to make his voice loud and clear so absolutely everyone could hear him. Of course, he didn’t use it much in school since the only ones he ever talked to there was teachers and people he had group projects with. But he would still not say much, since no one listened to him there either. Maybe with the new people he meet today he could finally talk to someone willing to talk to him.

“Karkat are y9u listening t9 me?”

Snapping out from his train of thought, Karkat looked up. He must have had a sad look on his face, because Kankri looked really worried. Realizing he had listened to whatever Kankri had said right now he just shrugged and walked over to the sink with his plate and cup.

“I g9t a message fr9m the sch99l that the first day had 6een... less than ideal. Care t9 explain h9w y9u g9t detenti9n?”

“I JUST MANAGED TO WALK INTO SOME YOUNGER KIDS. AND KINDA TALKED BACK TO A TEACHER, BUT NOT REALLY.”

“N9thing else y9u want t9 talk a69ut?”

Karkat just shook his head. Luckily they had an understanding for each other. He was just about to head back to his room to do more research on the deaths, before he remembered he had made some friends today.

“I MADE SOME FRIENDS. OR AT LEAST I THINK I DID.”

“That is quite g99d actually.”

“I'LL GO BACK TO MY ROOM NOW.”

“I think I will als9 head t9 my r99m early. G99d night.”

“GOOD NIGHT”

Two hours after saying good night to Kankri, Karkat was still up looking through whatever he could find out about the death in school, or just the school history in general. All he could find out by the searches he had done was that 4 persons had died, 2 boys and 2 girls. They had all died during the same school year, though on very different dates. One had died in november, one in february, one in april and the last one in june. There was no pattern with their deaths, and none of them seemed to be murder. (Though two of them had been heavy discussed about. Couldn’t people realize this was the death of actual people, not something to be discussed online?) 

He hadn’t opened the groupchat, but he knew there was tons of messages there. His phone had been buzzing extremely fast. Couldn’t they give it a rest? He was too tired now, so he could check it in the morning. He was pretty sure no one would care.

Going to sleep that night was hard for Karkat. There was something about what had happened that just didn’t seem right to him. One of them had also said he didn’t miss a pranking opportunity, so how could he know if he had been pushed, or just had been clumsy? Karkat was pretty sure he had just been clumsy… The one dragging him up had said something about stairs. Think, Karkat, think. What was it? Suddenly the phrase popped into his head. Quikly snatching a pencil and his notebook, he wrote it down, too tired to search it up now. 

“i warned you about the stairs bro”

It had sounded like an obscure pop-culture reference. He would search it up first thing in the morning. For now he needed rest, but he knew he would be extremely grumpy the next day.

Having a hard time sleeping, Karkat woke up at 05:26. Yes, he did look at his alarm clock as soon as he woke up. Yes, he was even more grumpy since he woke up so early. Not being able to fall back asleep, he went to the bathroom and took a shower. He knew his brother wouldn’t wake up as he was a very heavy sleeper. After eating and making sure everything was in his backpack, he remembered he had written something down the night before. He took his phone from his desk and unlocked it. The groupchat which was made yesterday already had gotten 1189 messages. He groaned, quickly skimming through the chats. 

The start showed a few news articles about the deaths. They were sent by Aradia, Sollux, Feferi and Gamzee. There had been a quick discussion about if they should meet in school, where they had agreed on not doing it until the last break. Many people had stuff to do apparently. Karkat had been mentioned a few times, but he didn’t want to bother about that now. Then Vriska had sent a link to a discussion on reddit about hot dogs with pineapple, which Terezi responded pasta with cucumbers were better. After around 700 messages of that everyone had gone quiet. At least they were quiet when Sollux somehow banned the words “hot dog, pineapple, pasta and cucumbers” in the chat. 

Almost forgetting that he was going to search up the mysterious phrase from yesterday, Karkat stopped in his room. The search only had 2 results. One from a pretty weird and sorta trashy webcomic, and the second from a discussion about the webcomic. The webcomic was called “Sweet bro and hella jeff”, and Karkat seriously couldn’t understand anything of it. Almost everything about it was horrible, and he closed out of the app as soon as he could. 

On the school bus Karkat looked at his phone. After a few seconds he got a new message from the group.

Kanaya: “Should We Act Like We Know Each Other Today, Or Should We Act Like We Do Not Know Each Other?”

“It Might Bring Any Suspicion If Any Of Us Are Seen Together, Of Course Excluding The Few Of You Who Normally Does.”

Sollux: “yeah, ii agree. people miight thiink iit2 weiird.”

Kanaya: “It Is A Shame, But Many Of Us Had Not Even Talked Properly With Anyone In This Group Before Yesterday.”

Feferi: “Are we still meeting in t)(e last break t)(oug)(?”

Kanaya: “Yes, Of Course.”

Feferi: “But we )(aven't gotten any answer from Karkat yet.”

Karkat: “I'LL COME.”

Before he manages to stop himself, Karkat sends the message. Not even sure about what he agreed to, or what they were even going to do there, Karkat closed the app. Walking off the bus, and into the school building he could feel people watching him. It just didn’t feel like it was the people walking beside him in the corridor.

The day felt like it was taking forever. During lunch Karkat sat alone. He would love to walk up to anyone and have lunch with them from the group chat, but he was far too anxious for that. So Karkat sat at one of the benches near the library. It was very calm in this hallway and everyone there was basically minding their own business. Looking at his phone and eating the sandwich he had made for himself. At least he could do a bit more research here.

At the end of the day, he had almost forgotten that he was going to meet up with the others, and hurriedly found where they had said they were supposed to meet. The conversation was short, and almost everything anyone said, Karkat had already found. He didn’t say anything about it though, since he really didn’t want anyone to think he knew better than them. He quickly excused himself and made his way too class.

His last class was slow, but Karkat couldn’t care less. When it was over he quickly made his way out, before going to the library for a bit. He was going to ask if they had any local history books there. When he went inside the librarian was already talking to a student, so he sat in one of the chairs there. Suddenly and without warning a voice came from his right.

“you’re the first one to actually take action when we do something. it feels a bit weird.”

Karkat could have snapped his neck if he turned around faster. He knew he probably wouldn’t see anyone.

“oh, yeah. you can’t see me. the others say it has to be fewer people around if we’re going to show ourself.”

Oh god, he was going crazy. He put everything in his bag and sat up. He couldn’t sit here, while what Karkat was really sure was a dead person talking to him, and not look like a dumbass. The book he could just forget.

“well, if you’re that fast to leave, i have to show you some places.”

Feeling a chill work it’s way around his body, Karkat started moving. He didn’t know how, but he knew this was important to whatever research he had done. 

Walking down a corridor Karkat felt the urge to look up at the lamps. Though all of them looked like they hadn’t been replaced in years, one of them looked newer than the others. The light from it was blinking though.

Now he was walking from the janitor closet, which Karkat noticed had few cleaning supplies in it, and to the back of the school where a small shed was in the garden. He didn’t know why, but he seemed to take his time down there.

Without his feet warning him, he made his way to the roof. Looking around he could see almost the entirety of the area around. The wind was blowing gently today and if his feet would have allowed him, he would have stayed here for a while. But there was one more place the voice had wanted him to go.

Walking down a now empty hallway, Karkat came to a small room. It wasn’t locked so he went inside. It was quite a small space, and Karkat got claustrophobic fast. Then he got to use his feet on his own again. Making his escape from the room, Karkat couldn’t figure out what these places had in common. 

Turning the corner, Karkat almost crashed right into Aradia and Feferi. Quickly apologizing, he made a move to get past them.

“are you okay? you look a bit shaken.”

“YEAH, I’M FINE.”

“We )(ave good news. T)(e t)(eater club let us stay )(ere on saturday so we can set up props for our next play.”

“while in reality we'll be here to see if we can in any contact with the dead.”

“SOUNDS GOOD. NOW IF YOU’LL EXCUSE ME.”

The rest of the evening was a haze for Karkat. He got home, eat dinner, did his homework without really registering what he did. Kankri went on and on about something, but Karkat just said he had to sleep, since he had such a terrible night before. They said good night and Karkat hurried off. 

Going to sleep that night, all Karkat wished for was a good night sleep. But looking at the ceiling he somehow knew he was going to regret sleeping that night.

//^//

_“Are you sure we chose the right ones?”_

_“of course, i believe they will do fine!”_

_“yeah the kid you showed around sure seems to understand stuff”_

_“dont give him such a hard time, Im sure he will do fine!!”_

_“If you all say so. Then I guess we have to make some sort of plan?”_

_“oh absolutely”_

_“this is going to be great :B”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What will happen next? I have small to none idea of what is going to happen, but I still won't give up on this!
> 
> Also next chapter I'm gonna describe some violent/gorey scenes, so if anyone has any triggers around that. It will all be put in the tags tho.
> 
> Thanks again to my friends!! (Just writing this because I really appreciate you.)
> 
> I'm going to try writing a new chapter every second week, but stuff might come up. If that happens I will be sure to tell! Kudos and comments appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> So that was the first chapter!! I have for now a baseline of what is going to happen next, but there are some characters I want to add that I am not sure how to add yet. Hopefully I get a clearer picture as I continue. (Also want to say thanks to some of my internet friends for giving me positive responses as soon as I said I was going to write this, really appreciate you!!)


End file.
